The Relationship Between Parenting Styles, Children’s Temperaments, and Sibling Relationships: A Look Within Families Who Have A Child With Down Syndrome

Previous research suggests that parents of children with Down syndrome use more authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles as compared to mothers of typically developing children (Tannock, 1988). When a mother has a child with and without a disability, the typically developing child tends to get less attention than their Down syndrome sibling (Mulroy, et. al., 2008). In the current research, I examined whether there were differences in parenting discipline styles between children with Down syndrome compared to their siblings within families. Mothers of children with Down syndrome completed questionnaires about their parenting styles, their children’s temperaments, and sibling relationships. There was no difference between children with Down syndrome and their siblings in mothers’ use of authoritative and authoritarian parenting, but mothers reported using more permissive parenting with their children with Down syndrome than with their other children. For children with Down syndrome, permissive and authoritarian parenting styles were positively correlated. Some dimensions of temperament were correlated in the sibling group with different parenting styles. For example, activity and shyness were correlated negatively with permissive parenting. Sibling relationship in the Down syndrome group was also correlated with certain parenting styles such that positive sibling relationship was negatively correlated with permissive parenting and negative sibling relationship was positively correlated with authoritarian parenting styles. This research provides insight into the differences in parenting styles used in families who have a child with and without Down syndrome.